1. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON

Martin Scorsese’s first Western is one of the top draws at Cannes this year. Screening out of competition, Killers of The Flower Moon, which will premiere at the festival on May 20, has an as-good-as-it-gets cast — besides Marty favourites Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, there is this year’s Best Actor Oscar winner Brendan Fraser, along with Jesse Plemons, Lily Gladstone, country star Sturgill Simpson and former White Stripes frontman Jack White.

Set in 1920s Oklahoma, it chronicles the real-life murders of members of the Osage tribe after the discovery of oil on their land, a case that pushed the FBI to its limits.

The film will mark the return of Scorsese to the Official Selection at Cannes for the first time since winning Best Director for After Hours in 1986. And yes, it runs over three hours and 26 minutes!

2. INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Harrison Ford will climb the steps of the Palais des Festivals on May 18, alongside director James Mangold and co-actors Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, Boyd Holbrook, Ethann Isidore and Mads Mikkelsen, for the world premiere of the latest, and what will be his last, Indiana Jones film.

The festival will also pay a special tribute to Ford, 80, even as he promises to enthral fans of the franchise with this outing of the Fedora-sporting adventurer. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny will, however, premiere out of competition.

3. ASTEROID CITY

Asteroid City

Imagine if the entire cast — we are talking Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Jason Schwartzmann, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, Tony Revolori, Jake Ryan, and Jeff Goldblum — decide to land up on the Cannes Croisette?!

Anderson — whose films are characterised by their quirk and colour, as well as for fusing vintage elements with futuristic, magical realism — is not known for doing things in half measures, and Asteroid City, set in a fictional desert town in 1955, sure promises to be a hell of a ride. Premiering on May 23, it will compete for the Palme d’Or, the top prize at Cannes.

4. THE ZONE OF INTEREST

The Zone of Interest

In competition at Cannes, The Zone of Interest explores a love story during World War II and blends drama, war and history. Screening in competition on May 19, the Holocaust drama, which was shot on location at Auschwitz, features a complicated love affair between a Nazi officer and the wife of a kapo. Director Jonathan Glazer is known for his experimental and unique artistic approach, and according to widely circulated reports, this film was the only one unanimously approved by the Cannes selection committee this year.

5. MAY DECEMBER

May December

Having previously won awards for several of his films at Cannes (including Velvet Goldmine and Carol), director Todd Haynes is returning to the Croisette on May 20 to showcase his latest drama that focuses on complex relationships, which will compete for the Palme d’Or.

The film is loosely based on the true story of Mary Kay Letourneau, with Julianne Moore and Charles Melton starring as a married couple whose age disparity and 20-year relationship inspired a national tabloid obsession. Now preparing to send their grown children off to college, an actress (played by Natalie Portman) embeds with the family to study them for an upcoming film where she’ll play Moore. The couple buckles under the pressure as Portman’s character probes as deeply as she can for an honest performance.

6. STRANGE WAY OF LIFE

Strange Way of Life

Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar’s Strange Way of Life will be presented in the Official Selection and in a world premiere, with the director and lead actors Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal in attendance. The Western drama revolves around the bond between two men (played by Hawke and Pascal) who met when they were young while working together as hired gunmen and reconnect 25 years later.

The short is the film-maker’s sophomore English-language outing after The Human Voice in 2020. The screening will be followed by a conversation with Almodovar and his team.

7. OCCUPIED CITY

Occupied City

Oscar-winning film-maker Steve McQueen’s documentary premieres on May 17, and focuses on Amsterdam, where the present and past continuously intersect and overlap. The visuals all show contemporary Amsterdam — its streets, squares, 17th-century buildings — while the narration points out, in even tones, what took place at those very locations during World War II when the Nazis ruled, with arrests, executions, betrayals, acts of inhumanity and, sometimes, acts of heroism, being the order of the day.

The British director, who currently lives in Amsterdam, has made sure that Occupied City is not the average documentary — made on a budget of $5 million-plus, it runs over four hours.

8. LA CHIMERA

La Chimera

Competing for the Palme d’Or and set to premiere on May 26, this Italian-French-Swiss drama is directed by Alice Rohrwacher and stars Josh O’Connor and Isabella Rossellini. The film deals with a young British archaeologist who gets involved in an international network of stolen Etruscan artefacts. More interestingly, he has a ‘gift’ — he can ‘feel’ emptiness.

Director Rohrwacher is a Cannes veteran — In 2011, she directed her first feature film, Heavenly Body, which premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes and received huge critical acclaim. Her second feature film, The Wonders, won the Grand Prix at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. Her third film Lazzaro Felice premiered at the 2018 edition of the festival where it won the award for Best Screenplay. She served on the jury of the festival’s 2019 edition.

9. BANEL & ADAMA

Banel & Adama

French-Senegalese filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye Sy stands as the sole debut feature director vying for the Palme d’Or this year. Banel & Adama that will premiere on May 20, is set in a remote village in Northern Senegal and follows the titular couple, who are fiercely in love. When Adama refuses his blood duty as future chief and informs the village council of his intentions, the whole community is disrupted and chaos ensues.

Toulaye Sy has described his film as “a tragic love story”, which has been shot in Pulaar language with a cast of local, non-professional actors. This film could well be the outlier to spring a surprise this year.

10. THE OLD OAK

The Old Oak

Two-time Palme d’Or winner Ken Loach returns with the tale of the sole remaining pub in an economically ruined North-East former pit village. Loach is known for his hard-hitting, emotionally driven (often, emotionally punishing) stories and The Old Oak promises to be in the same mould. The fact that Loach has said that this could be his last film will also give The Old Oak, premiering on May 26, an edge. Will he win a third Palme d’Or? Let’s wait and watch.